The city of Peterborough has announced plans for the installation of 8 new EV charging stations, which will be free to use with paid parking. The proposal was discussed during a city council meeting on Monday, and is now up for ratification at the council meeting scheduled for April 25th.
In total, the city plans to install 24 EV chargers by November 1st and, of that number, 16 of them will be allocated for city use and eight for the public. Some of the chargers destined for the city fleet will reportedly be in locations such as the public works garage on Webber Avenue, while the public chargers will be placed at Simcoe Street Parking Garage downtown, and similar locations.
The project is expected to cost the city $263,918, which is half of the total cost. To make the in-stallations more affordable, the city of Peterborough teamed up with the firm Elexicon Group of Whitby to successfully apply for 50% subsidization for the 16 city-use chargers from Natural Resources Canada. They’ve applied for the same subsidization for the public-use chargers, and are awaiting approval.
The staff report also reportedly recommends the city pay for its share of the cost from the Cli-mate Change Reserve fund, which sets aside $426,000 annually for environmental protection projects.
The council appears to be quite pleased with the plans, with interim infrastructure commissioner Michael Papadacos said the plan is “to install chargers that are much faster than the ones typi-cally installed at residences; those often take overnight to charge a car.” According to Papa-dacos, the new chargers won’t be able to charge a vehicle in as little as 20 to 30 minutes, but will be “somewhere in between” in terms of charging performance.
